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Our dearest Jeff is famous ;)<br>
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.informationweek.com/agencies-widen-open-source-use--/d/d-id/899851">http://www.informationweek.com/agencies-widen-open-source-use--/d/d-id/899851</a><br>
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<h1 class="larger blue" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;
font-size: 2.16667em; color: rgb(0, 52, 104); border: 0px;
line-height: 1em;">Agencies Widen Open-Source Use</h1>
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background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Open-source software
programs streamline efforts, improve security, and lower costs.</span>
<p class="" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; display:
block; -webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
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63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
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background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Federal agencies, looking
for new ways to lower their IT costs, are exploiting open-source
software tools in a wider range of applications, not only to
reduce software costs, but also to tighten network security,
streamline operations, and reduce expenses in vetting applications
and services. </p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
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63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
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background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Department of Homeland
Security typifies the widening embrace of open-source software.
The main reason has to do with saving money, says Greg Capella,
DHS deputy executive director, Enterprise System Development
Office, Chief Information Officer. The department is applying
open-source code internally, not only for its IT infrastructure,
but also for mobile applications, he said during the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://fedscoop.com/redhatgovernmentsymposium/2013/"
style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; color: rgb(4, 52, 100);
text-decoration: underline;">Red Hat Government Symposium</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in Washington, Nov. 6.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One open-source pilot,
called “Car Wash,” is a platform to test the integration of mobile
device applications. Capella notes that the pilot will extend
beyond the DHS and soon be made available across the federal
government. The system has already been presented to the federal
CIO Council.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
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background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Agencies wishing to deploy
Android or iOS-based devices can use Car Wash to look for
preferred coding practices in applications and for security holes.
“It gives you everything from coding best-practices… to security,
[section] 508, and other compliance checks,” he said. The system
will test and provide feedback, for instance, about how well the
product’s developers have coded an application.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Efforts like Car Wash are
one of the ways that the DHS wants to refine how it
uses open-source software, Capella explained. The practices used
in the pilot program build on open-source software’s strengths as
a community-developed product that tends to catch the introduction
of security holes while adding capabilities quickly to
foundational software, he said.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The DHS is also focused on
expanding its cloud capabilities using open-source software. That
can be challenging because agencies within DHS often don’t want to
compromise on features, Capella said. That’s changing, however, as
budgets tighten. “We’re seeing more people willing to compromise
and starting to embrace these 80 percent solutions as opposed to
solutions that push the envelope.”</p>
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<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
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background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The expanded use
of open-source software to streamline capabilities and improve
operations can also be seen in the intelligence community, in
particular at the National Security Agency.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
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background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There is a large amount of
duplication involved in information assurance, explains Jeff
Blank, a technology and systems analysis/network components
director with the NSA’s Information Assurance branch. Much of that
duplication is the result of multiple checklists required for
vendors’ products at varying security and authorization levels.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Blank is now trying to
reduce that duplication by conducting due diligence once with a
vendor offering multiple products. Working with Red Hat, NSA set
up a project called the Security Content Automation Protocol
(SCAP) Security Guide in 2011. It is a hosted catalogue of key
security settings for a range of software products such as
enterprise Linux. The SCAP Guide also plugs into and cross
references products with other security catalogues, such as DISA’s
CCI List. He noted that the goal was to allow different enterprise
consumers to use security profiles as a guide to selecting the
products they needed.</p>
<p style="padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; display: block;
-webkit-margin-before: 1em; -webkit-margin-after: 1em;
-webkit-margin-start: 0px; -webkit-margin-end: 0px; color: rgb(65,
63, 65); border: 0px; font-size: 1.08333em; line-height:
1.38462em; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style:
normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Blank described the SCAP
Guide program as a success, noting that it will help reduce the
costs of security due diligence in the intelligence community. He
also praised the quality benefits of open-source software that
result from users working in shared environments and gaining
feedback -- a big change from the days of proprietary software.
“When [software] is done behind closed doors, you don’t always get
the best results,” he said. <br>
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